and dvr the show if you can't catch us live. have a great weekend. catch you next week. ♪ lou: i'm lou bobs, and tonight, we begin with big bird. who would have thought a children's icon on public broadcasting since 1969 would play a role in a presidential campaign, but big bird is doing that becoming a big deal this week in the first presidential debate when governor romney said this -- >> what would i cut from spending? obamacare is on the list. i use that term with all respect. i'm going to stop the subsidy to

pbs and other things. i love pbs and big bird, and i actually like you, too. lou: president obama not able to resist since then referring to big bird yesterday and today, and here's what he said. >> for all of you moms and kids out there, don't worry, somebody's finally getting tough on big bird. [cheers and applause] rounding him up. elmo's got to watch out too. governor romney plans to let wall street run wild, but he's bringing the hammer down on "sesame street," it makes sense. lou: the president was trying to make a joke, but, mr. president, wait a minute. turns out big bird is deserving of considerable public attention. upon further investigation, it appears the last thing the president should be doing is to minimize what's happening to the taxpayer money because of big bird, all his friends like elmo

and jim lehrer. the president should be paying attention to the count to help him with the numbers, and the numbers are troubling. on a day in which the congressional budget office announced the 2012 budget deficit came in at $11 trillion for a fourth straight year, turns out our out of control spending includes roughly $450 million given every year to the corporation for public broadcasting, $8 million of that going to, that's right, sesame workshop and big bird. it appears easy to dismiss millions of dollars when the government faces trillion of dollars in debt. the left may be cute with a call to end funding for public broadcasting, but here's the homework the left should have done before they and president obama began their reflective aattacks. they are $388 million in assets now. in merchandise sales alone, it brought in $45 million, five

times what it received in government grants. that little cute sesame workshop turns out to be a moneymaker producing hundreds of millions of dollars. we take all of that up tonight with former george bush senior adviser carl rove, and as well, the unemployment rate falling to 7.8%, employers adding just 114,000 jobs. we're talking about that, and, yes, big bird too with the congressional budget office with douglas holtz-eakin. any -- new reports two suspects were arrested in the assassination to the ambassador to libya and three other americans. the man who broke the story that the obama administration knew it was a well-planned terrorist attack within 24 hours. daily beast writer, eli lake, joins us. governor romney campaigning today in virginia and florida riding high off the debate

performance renewing enthusiasm in the republican party. new posts debate poll numbers show m the governor closing the gap with the president. fox news, chief political cor responsibility carl cameron with our report. ♪ >> a month before election day, and unemployment below 8% for the first time in the obama era, obama called it too little, too late because so many stoppedded looking for work. >> the truth is, if the same number of people were participating in the work force today as when the president was elected, unemployment would be 11%. >> romney says his plan creates long term jobs rather than part time work to get the unemployment under 8%, 32 days before the election. >> i will help create 12 million new jobs and rising take home pay. romney's debate performance is rising in polls inches ahead in ohio and virginia be it within

the poll's margin of era. the tracking poll has the president up five points. in virginia, he met with miners blasting the president for waging war on the coal industry and the workers. >> i believe we should take advantage of it, put workers back to work, and use the resource that's abun adapt, cheap, and to be burned in a clean way. >> riding high, romney reminded a rally last night with fireworks and trace adkins that the president promised his stimulus gets unemployment lower than it is. >> he said right now, we would be at 5.4 #% unemployment. >> romney pounded biden for stating the administration's goal yesterday of a trillion dollar tax hike on those earning more than 200,000 or $250,000. >> they have been squeezed and buried. >> he did not talk about the 47% who don't pay income taxes

expect a handout. he renounced the statement last night once and for all. >> completely wrong, and i absolutely believe my life has shown i care about 100%. >> they hope the remarks put the matter behind him, but to prevent that, democrats spent today announcing new talking points to keep it alive. lou? lou: thank you very much. carl cameron, chief political correspondent. joining us for more on this final month before the election and what changed since the debate, carl rove joins us, the head of the american cross roads, former adviser to president bush. good to have you here. start with, first of all, that pempsz. you and i have not had the chance to talk since then. governor romney was simply dominating. >> yeah. just from the opening bell to the final wimper. he was in charge.

who was that guy? he was funny. he was aggressive. he was presidential. his tone was direct. he spent a lot of time explaning in clear, precise detail what it is he wanted to do. he shared the values this under girded that, a performance that was extraordinary as was the preponderate's. the president came, you know, while romney brought his a-game, the president was clearly not in the zone, and it showed. lou: and i -- i have to say that at least in my memory, i can't think of when last a candidate was determined to be in all of the instant polls, all of the snap polls, such a victor by such a margin. there was no equivocation, no ambiguity whatsoever. he dominated. what will be the impact in the polls as a result of what he did? >> yeah. well, first of all, got a white board to make the points. lou: all right. >> the debate challenger benefits from the debates, and seven of the last nine presidential debate serieses if

you check polls before and after, the challenger has picked up ground. lose the first debate, and you tend to lose the series, and even if you are cover, have recovery in the second and third debates so the fact that was this was the first debate and strong performance by romney and weak by obama, probably means romney will at the end of the series have a gain. the gain is the impact is generally two to three points which may not sound like much, but when you're in a close as a race as this one is, and it is close. the track is five points as you said. take a look. there's 91 polls in the last 30 days, 91 national polls, not state polls, national polls, and the margin's been over two points. if mitt romney moves up two points and president obama moves down two points, there's another contest here with somebody else in front. lou: look at the swing states, looking at rasmussen, romney

ahead in virginia and in ohio, romney a point behind the president where there was a significant lead, as you know, for the president. this is having some influence early. is it likely to be more profound as days go on? >> well, in all likelihood, this will build itself in for three or four more days here. there could be a lengthened -- and then the vice presidential debate that i suspect ryan takes care of biden in good form, but not much impact on the polls, and then the polls will be influenced by the debate the week following. let me say something about ohio. you put it in an interesting subject there. president obama's campaign said for weeks ohio's comfortably put away, ten points. american cross roads, which i don't head, just a supporter of it, i raise money for it, mu american cross roads' polling

before the debate showed the state a two point margin for obama before the debate. if the state is comfortably put away, why is the obama campaign next week increasing its buy in ohio by 50%? you don't add a lot of money, a lot, you know, millions plus on to a state you think you put away. that's is what's happening in ohio next week. president obama's campaign is adding a pretty significant amount to the tv there. lou: how concerned are you about money? by the way, if i misspoke, i apologize, but we got to find out who is running the american crossroads, because i want to talk to them more often. >> his name is steven law. he was the ceo of american crossroads, and a very able guy. lou: i got you. until then, if it's all right, we'll just stick with you. is that all right? >> all right. >> in ohio, around the country, we're looking at the wall street journal reporting $150 million raised last month for the obama

campaign. we'll told by the romney campaign theirs is going to be impressive, but we don't have any numbers. do you have a sense that the romney campaign is keeping pace with that extraordinary fundraising result for the president's campaign? >> you know, i don't know the numbers, but my suspicion is that that's a very impressive number by president obama, and while he was, in essence, his cash on hand began to dwindle starting in may had he spent all the money on tv, this is going to get way in the weeds, but it's very important. if you're obama or romney, the money that you have in your own campaign treasury is the money most easy to spend with the biggest impact, and you're guaranteed, if you're obama or romney in getting the lowest unit rate, the lowest cost for the a tv spot buying from a tv station. outside groups like american crossroads have to pay a premium. president obama spends a dollar, we have to spend more than a

dollar to get the same weight of television. a lot more of romney's money is found in the wallet of the republican national committee, and smaller money is found in the democratic national committee. what's that mean? if you use money from the democratic or republican national committees, you have to use what are are called combo ads in which you not only mention obama, but also democrats, or not just romney, but other republicans. it weakens the ad, the way of the power of the ad a little bit. we have an important -- lou: you feel good? go ahead. >> i do think that obama has an advantage in that more of his money is in -- is in a wallet from which he can spend easily, get the lowest rate, and control the message better than can romney. lou: not concerned about the fundraising? >> oh, i'm concerned about it. i think it's a real problem because, look, you have not talked about the big, you know,

the big gorilla in the room, and that is organized labor, which will pump $400 million to $450 million into the race like four years ago. obama here, romney here, outside groups on behalf of romney evening it up, and labor comes in like this. the president will out spend mitt romney. lou: when you talk about the gorilla there, it's not just union money, but ground forces going to work. are you satisfied that governor romney has a sufficient ground force ready to meet what will be a daunting ground operation on the part of the president obama? >> well, i don't know state-by-state, but i have talked to some of the people involved in some of these states who are old political hands and know what's going on. in ohio, they are already blowing through the 2004 bush ground game metrics with one exception -- voter registration. you have -- neither party's done a good job on registration this

year. yeah, wisconsin, ohio, virginia, i mean, all the reports you hear from people paying close tension to it is that the ground game is big, massive, and strong on the republican side, and let's be honest, it's going to be big and massive on the democratic side as well. enthusiasm will be higher on the republican side. that's the way when you have a out party, they are energized in a close contest. you have to have mechanics, the mechanical things going on on both sides, and they are. lou: serious big numbers, we appreciate it. quickly, 30 seconds, your views on big bird and whether or not he's going to become an avatar within this campaign. >> you know, look, you put your finger on it. this is a supposed notary public-profit organization -- non-profit organization making a lot of money and assets. you know, if they -- and in return, we give them $8 million worth of money, which the united

states government doesn't have that we borrowed from the chinese to give it to them. big board, if they were a for-profit entity, could still what they do for public broadcasting. the president talks about a new american patriotism, but maybe the new american patriotism is giving the private money and as they already are doing of characters and products. i mean, you know, we took our kids to sesame street shows in the communities and neighborhoods where we bought tickets, and you can buy sesame street characters for the kids. use that -- lou: marketing for big board and sesame street. my goodness, who would have thought. thank you for being here. >> you bet. lou: more on the presidential rate here with the a-team. stay with us. obamacare unplugged and extraordinary woman sums up the

president's signature achievement in a long entertaining, remarkably accurate sentence. >> for those of you who might not guess, i will not read every page here, but this is the short version of obamacare. it's like 1100 pages, and i'll tell how many is original. you know, from this podium, i'm going to stand on this. lou: you'll meet this remarkable woman, doctor, attorney, none, professor -- well, there's more, but we'll save it. barbara belar joins us. america's job picture. the unemployment rate falls, jack walsh goes all government conspiracy, but it's simpler than that. it's just government. former cbo director, douglas holtz-eakin, next. ve lately.

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lou: the unemployment rate dropping and dramatically. the jobs picture, however, is still stagnant. former cbo director, douglas holtz-eakin, joins us here in just moments to explain all of this and to give us a perspective on the economy going forward. on wall street, stocks finished the nasdaq down about 13 points. for the week, both the dow and s&p up 1% while the nasdaq posted a fractional gain.

as i reported, the september unemployment report did come in at 7.8%, down from 8.2%, 114,000 jobs, 10,000 of them government jobs. unemployment is 15% with 23 million americans still unemployed, under employed, or having simply given up looking for work. crude oil dropping again on concerns of slow economic growth. crude oil down a dollar 83 under $90 a barrel. for california, prices statewide for gasoline are $4.99 a station, and some stations charges $6 a gallon. others shut down because of gasoline shortages. nationally, the price of a gallon is now $3.79. good news, however, exxon reporting its refinery in california is back up to full operating capacity, but the

chevron is still not at full capacity. we are joined by the former congressional budget office director, the of the american action forum. doug, good to have you with us. i never heard people be intelligent in their own special ways go conspiracy nut on us when the report came out. give us the direct, simplest explanation how in the world we can see the payrolls rise by 114,000, and the unemployment rate plummet to 7.8%. >> the payroll employment, the 1 # 14,000, is a number that we get by going to firms saying how many people on the payroll? they ask one out of every three workers. it's a big survey of the economy, considered the most reliable.

the other number is going to households saying do you have a job? if the answer is no, are you looking for work? if so, you count as unemployed. this month, they asked do you have a job, somehow, the reports came back that we traded 873 # additional job, simply, completely out of line with everything else in the economy, and only evidence of what is effectively a bad poll. they found people not representative of the united states, and it really ought to be dismissed, but that's the real source of the decline in unemployment, and it's unrelated to the 114,000 because they are different surveys. lou: we talk about the relative survey, the establishment survey, it is about 150,000 government units and businesses. >> right. lou: household survey about 50 # -- 50,000 across, smaller, more volatile. come november 2, when they do this again, what do you expect the result?

will the president talk about good progress or saying, wait a minute? >> the 873 is a mirage and goes away in a month. when they ask how many jobs, is looks like we lost job, and unemployment goes up. the reality is this is not going to be a tribute to anything that's going on in the economy. it's a tribute to the bad statistics this time around. lou: what's your sense of the economy? give us the whole seek and outlook, if you will. >> if you toss out the statistics mirage, there's job growth that's not keeping up with the population. we saw a little bit of rise in wages, we did see a rise in earnings, and as a result, hours increased. we saw an uptick in jobs in july and august. they revised things, and that is good news. we remain with the lowest labor force population rates since 1982, and i mean, as you saw today, crude oil prices fell. if the largest economy in the

globe was accelerating, that wouldn't happen. we're moving sidewaying. we're not falling off the cliff, but we're note better. lou: douglas holtz-eakin, good to talk with you, thanks. >> thank you, lou. lou: up next, a remarkable woman who is obamacare rant went viral. 2 million folks got engaged. the illinois state candidate joins us here

. you know, i often say, look at me, i am nobody's puppet and nobody owns me. i can just do the right thing. i believe that the time has come, i am a national team in this country was founded on entrepreneurship and the less government and so, we need people to vote their conscience and vote right because there is no way that this country is meant to become socialistic.

if i cannot, i see this whole thing, i would describe it as obama's failed socialistic experience. lou: i love your optimism and it's great to meet you and we are going to -- i'd like to continue the conversation and have you back here very soon. >> i am ready to work. >> with a sense of humor. doctor, thank you so much, we appreciate it. if you want to know more about this remarkable woman, the website, a left bellar.com. >> the latest developments in

benghazi. and harry reid said romney didn't pay his taxes, then he said he wasn't a good enough mormon. it seems that harry reid will say anything to attack mitt romney. even for harry reid, his latest trick is more than 30. >> governor romney won the debate, moving up in the polls. president obama gets in unemployment blues. nearly 1 billion people around the world don't have enough food to survive. we can't let this happen. there is something we can do about it. please join christina aguilera and yum! brands in the movement to fight world hunger by supporting the united nations world food programme. for more information, go to fromhungertohope.com. your contribution will feed children and save lives. together, we can stop the dying and start the living. and together, we can move people from hunger to hope. but proven technologies allow natural gas producers

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lou: monday after fbi fbi agents inspected the conflict in been talking, they are deciding whether to take action against those killing the americans and the ambassador. that is what is being reported by my next guest. eli lake.

he has brought countless stories on the attack in benghazi. first come i would like to commend you and your reporting on this story. go to your most recent, which is the administration. has not decided how to proceed on how to handle these that led the attack. >> or two things going on. one is an intelligence community process going about identifying those responsible for the benghazi assaults and figuring out their locations and about the way the united states and the cia fronts the senior members of al qaeda and afghanistan and so forth. the consulate has very little

friends are going for a criminal investigation. at this point on the white house has yet to decide whether this is going to be treated as a high crime or an act of war. in that respect, there are people coming to me and saying that they have searchable intelligence on the ground and they would like an answer sooner rather than later. lou: at this point, there seems to be no indication whatsoever of a mythic in u.s. military covert or overt presence in benghazi or near benghazi, able to carry out the will of the commander-in-chief should he make the decision. hopefully that is a misapprehension on the public's part. >> my sources tell me that there are, i guess, capabilities in place for special operations teams, as well as drum strikes if the call is made.

the other issue here is, in some ways, president obama is darned if he doesn't die but he doesn't. it would be seen as a political move in an election year a month away from the election if he was to take a strike based on intelligence. however, not acting could also have political consequences. it is a tough decision for the white house at this point summaries. >> that is a very talented both view, i think, part of analysts that would say that is a pro-american government. there is nothing refusing to allow fbi agents go there, but those aren't the acts of a

friendly government, either that, or it was a delay on the part of a very timid government, namely our own to well, i'm still trying to find out the dynamics there. the one thing i can say is that the reaction in the aftermath of the assault was very different than what we saw in egypt. there were some arrests, although it does look like the people who were arrested first, were anything more than the usual suspects. the other problem i think is that the government doesn't really have that much capability. they need to negotiate with a lot of militias in eastern libya that have different agendas than the government and may not be so interested in helping the united states bring the killers up and ambassador stevens to justice. lou: eli lake, we look forward to talking with you soon and thank you. up next, president obama spoke for minutes longer than governor romney in the wednesday night

debate. guess what he wasted? nearly a minute of that time during it. coming up next week, an all-star lineup. brit hume joins us and she will we were come right back

lou: there were times in the debate the president looked lost without his teleprompter. does feed put together a compilation of every time the president stuttered. >> what we have said is ah ah ah ah ah but what we have also said it is ah.

lou: he wasted almost one minute on ah and staring. harry reid is something else. levelling another false accusation against governor romney. in july he claimed romney did not detect this 10 years. that turned out, he miseries a bit -- misrepresented the reality "romney staff he told he would the staff not to honor deportation exemptions. actually the boston globe said the opposite. romney will honor the executive order for young illegal immigrants. when it senator harry reid staff was called out they would not retract the statement. they just blamed the

quotation marks on of a typo. dirty harry. the enabler rate dips 7.8% back at the inauguration day level. does that take support out of the romney campaign? the "a team" to democrats? are you kidding me? are you kidding me? well, an independent. before copd... i took my son fishing every year. we had a great spot, not easy to find, but worth it. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function starting within five minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i'm breathing better. and that means...fish on! symbicort is for copd including chronic bnchitis and emphysema.

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lou: and joining us now the "a team" former clinton advisor doug shoen and

democratic campaign strategist with joe trip be. kevin, you were urged tweeting throughout the debate were you surprised or impressed by governor romney's other domination? >> i have not been impressed in person. he does not come off as being that commanding. he gets complaints about being vague about his agenda but he was so quick and ready it took the edge off. i was pleasantly surprised. >> totally. he is an expert. more likable and commanding than i expected.

and the president was stammering, unfocused. lou: sitting there watching this i could not believe anyone seeking to hold the office would have his head down not address his opponent. it was bad manners aside from everything else. >> i agree i was surprised how sharp he was. it was a great performance. but barack obama with plenty of the debates hillary and

edwards drove the debates pushing forward. he did not engaged later he got better. >> have you ever seen a better debater? >> there have been. lou: i am curious. >> ronald reagan. lou: he lost in the first one. >> two out of three from walter mondale. lou: maybe this is a new level. i just want to see how stingy they are with their praise.

i think he blew the doors off. >> he had the night of his life. he did. and barack obama i thought had been decent but not great. he does things well. debating is not one of them. lou: does he get better? >> no. he keeps the head down who are the lowlifes challenging me? i think that is the arrogance coming out. he does not seem to enjoy a the political process more to be anointed. >> i would say i would concede the mitt romney that showed up last tuesday is the real one.

i think there will be much more aggression in going forward. >> just a second. i want to go back to you this reading the social that. >> i apologize. [laughter] lou: you are running from the safety net? >> you are a clever political strategist. >> the obama argument has to be the romney tax cuts are real and will result in social programs being cut. lou: but today three days after the commentary, there is a good case the president

was wrong. >> ghandi has never claimed any of this. i agree. it will be about making romney explain it to to define him the way they were he did not do that and that is a mistake they will not let happen again. lou: analysis that is reasonable and you are professionals and you know, that tax policy will excited to know -- look that is a result of lowering taxes and put aside two other sets of tax expenditures they ruled out of bounds. but the analysis has been atrocious this specificity

that he has to be specific for he was elected 2008 with 9 million votes and they did not say one word. >> he does not give you a lecture over the long term he does give impression of being the guy who could have the discussion if you wanted and is in command of the numbers it will be hard to go after him on that. lou: i will wager nobody will outwalk governor romney on the issue of taxes or obamacare. >> it might be out demagogue him. >> poll after poll has shown

literally 40% they don't know enough about the specifics of romney's plan. they don't believe that they know him just about 30% decide they were favorably decide they were favorably impressed. seems they haven't been moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help. with the experience and service to keep things rolling. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together.

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